Pleasant View City November Update

Monday, November 20, 2017 - 4:15pm

Dawn Scothern / newsletters

There has been work going on with six agencies (Pleasant View, North Ogden, Ogden, Harrisville, Weber County and UDOT) that put water into the storm water system that makes its way out to the detention basin North of 2700 N. just East of the freeway. This facility was built in in the late 90's for regional purposes by Weber County to accommodate growth and the storm events. This detention basin has been monitored fairly close; and recently, the gate was closed to see how much the basin could hold and what it would do.

First picture is before the gates were closed.

Second picture is after they closed the gate.

The mayor and council are currently working to get maintenance agreements from the other agencies to help with the maintenance and expansion of its capacity. This should help with the detention within our existing system along with capacity to hold the water in a storm event to avoid the over flow of the canal along 4000 N. in Farr West where both this canal and the North Ogden Canal meet up west of the freeway. It is important to note that this basin always has water in it and was constructed with the idea (at least on the original drawing) to be a water feature, and there is no reason it could not be an attractive feature to the future Commercial Development Area just on the South side of this basin.

Cleaning out the City right of way, in cooperation with the cleaning of the canal. Humphreys Construction cut down and chipped the trees and we hauled them away. This helps the management of the water in a storm event to hopefully avoid flooding of the residents.

The City is under financial obligation to help pay for the maintenance of the canal, since we dump storm water into the canal.

As you can see from the pictures, it was cleaned up along the right of way for visibility on the road and uncovered an overgrown storm sewer inlet into the canal. The water is still running, and it has not rained in sometime.

Recycling

Prices are changing for recycled material. Prior to the current of $28.00 a ton, it was not costing the City any tipping fees. The recycled material market changed and jumped our price to the $28.00 a ton mark. The City was just informed that sometime in November, that will increase to $57.00 a ton for recycled material, due to market conditions. The City is currently paying $36.80 a ton for garbage to the County.

The cities to the south are working on a memorandum of understanding with Recycled Earth along with the help of Waste Management to keep the cost of recycling around the $36 - $38 per ton. The key to this low cost will be ‘how clean’ the material is; and if not, we could see a fee increase since they would need to take the contaminated material to the landfill. This sheds a whole new light on recycling. Are we really making a difference by buying products, that when done, can be recycled even if they are ending up at the landfill?

Mayor Milski has some cost saving ideas for the City. The mayor explains, “I proposed to the City Council to approve the adding of a part-time engineer for the City. This will be a full-time position to be shared 50/50 with North Ogden City.We pay a tremendous amount of money each year for engineering services, for small to large projects along with development reviews, general reviews, roads and the like. The items that this position will review initially (most are ongoing items) we pay on average $80,000 to the engineering firm, for the same work our new guy will take care of this and it will cost the City $50,000, saving $30,000 for the tax payer. It is my hope due to effectiveness that we can also have this position oversee construction management of projects along with those associated inspections, which could save upwards of another $30,000 to $50,000 for the tax payer!

During the public comment part of the City Council meeting, Dale Roberts opposed the hiring of a part-time engineer. While I do not normally comment on the public comments from residents, I do when they attack me. Mr. Roberts was opposed to this cost savings, and mentioned that it was under my administration that I eliminated this position. Again, he was wrong. I eliminated the building inspector, to save the City over $30,000 a year, and by hiring the part-time engineer, it will save the City money as I have outlined above. All I can determine is that he does not know what he is talking about again, since he made no effort to ask questions of me or the City Administrator.”